


Birthday?

by im_always_hoping



Category: NCIS
Genre: Birthday, F/M, KateBirthday, tate - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 01:33:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19802008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_always_hoping/pseuds/im_always_hoping
Summary: The office has a strange air today. McGee and Tony can feel it: it comes from Kate. They screwed up but the problem is that they don't know what they did. Would they be able to figure it out and fix it before the end of the day?





	1. What did we do?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first fanfic here so if you like it or not, I'm open to comments or suggestions.

Monday morning in Washington DC. Anthony Dinozzo is late to work (as usual) but he had a smile on his face anyway. The elevator's doors open with a cling and he gets into the office, directly to his desk.

"Good morning everyone" He was almost yelling.

McGee looked at him, with a weird look.

"Why are you so happy?" He will probably regret asking that.

"I had the best date night ever"

"On a Sunday night?"

"Every night can be date night, Probie. So guys, pay attention and learn. Last night I got to the..."

"I'm not in the mood, Tony" Kate interrupted him without stop looking at the papers on her desk, clearly not wanting to hear about his night objectifying a woman.

"Well someone DIDN'T have a good night." He replied.

"Just be quiet for a minute, ok?"

It was normal for the team that Kate didn't want to listen to his stories, since they not always shared the same thoughts about dating. But there's something different about today.

"It's everything okay?" Tony asked.

"Why wouldn't it be?" She finally look up to him, like she was challenging him.

"You seem upset"

"Well, I'm not"

"Are you sure?"

She sighs. "Yeah," Clearly tired of the interrogation, so she stood up and went to the only place she's heard and welcome: "I'm going down to see Abby"

*

McGee knew immediately that something was wrong. "Hey, what did you do this time?"

"What?" Tim saw confusion in his eyes but he didn't know if Tony was just playing dumb. 

He went straight to the point. "What did you do to Kate? Why is she so upset?"

"I don't know! I didn't do anything!"

"It wasn't you?"

"No! Didn't you see that I just cross the door?"

For the first time, he had a point. "Um, that's weird. She's always in a good mood, except you know... when you upset her."

"Well this time it's wasn't me. I'll try to talk to her later." He promised, looking at his partner.

Kate spent the entire morning with Abby, it wasn't until after lunch that Tony had a chance to talk to her. "What's up with you? You had been upset all day" Tony tried to make his way into her mind while McGee and Gibbs were gone.

She's not even looking at him when she says "I can't talk right now, I promised Abby..."

He grabbed her by her shoulders and turned her to confront her. "No, no, no. Hey, hey, hey. Stop with 'Abby'. She is not your partner, I am. And you are gonna tell me what's going on."

"Nothing." She was avoiding his eyes at all cost.

"C'mon. In the years I've met you I've never seen you like this."

"That's sweet. You act like you know me."

"What? What are you talking about? Of course I know you."

"No, you don't. If you'd really know me, you'd know why I'm so mad at you and McGee."

"You are mad at Probie too?" He was really surprised by that. Usually McGee is the good guy of the story.

"Not as I am with you Tony." She wasn't angry anymore, but she looked very disappointed and sad. Tony let her go.

"Please, Kate. I..." The phone on his desk started to ring and he sweared to himself. He knew he had to answer. "Just... give me a minute." He said at the same time he picked up the phone. "Special agent DiNozzo."

"You are gonna need more than that, Tony." She said in a low voice before walking away.

*

It was already afternoon when Tony grabbed Tim and dragged him to the elevator. "Tony, stop it! We got work to do!"

"You are right Probie, we need to find out what's wrong with Kate before she makes our lifes miserable forever."

"Wait a minute." He freed himself from Tony's arms. "Yes, you are right, we need to know what we did wrong but I'm not doing it because she is gonna make me 'miserable', I do it because I really care about her and I don't like seeing her like this."

"What's your point, Probie?"

"My point is: why are you doing this Tony? Because it looks like you are only worry about yourself, like your friendship with Kate wouldn't matter. Do you actually care about her? Cause I don't know you, but I'm afraid I might lose her as a friend. We almost lost her last time. But to you everything is a joke, right?"

'Lose her as a friend' He can't lose her, right? They are Tony and Kate, they've always been together, even before McGee got into the team.  
They fight, they tease each other... but they are a team, they complete each other. Of course he cares about her, he just doesn't show it.  
The memories of her in his hands, bleeding, not knowing if she was going to make it crossed his mind. He can't lose her, in anyway. McGee realized that what he just said really hit Tony and he starts wondering if there's something else in there.

"I'm sorry. It's ok, let's go see Abby and fix this." Tim doesn't need an answer anymore so he pushed Tony into the elevator.


	2. Fix this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't mention it but I think you already figure it out. This story is set one year after Kate was shot by Ari, it's a different universe where she survives.

In the hallway they started to hear heavy metal music and they knew Abby was alone. They opened the door without knocking and found a head in front of the computer with two pigtails moving at the rhythm of the song.

"Abby, do you have a minute?" McGee asked nicely but she definitely couldn't hear him.

"ABBY!" Tony yelled so loud that made Abby jump. She took the remote and turned off the music.

"Damn it, guys! You don't need to yell."

"Sorry Abs." McGee apologied looking at Tony. "We just have a problem and we thought that maybe you could help us"

"Sure." She sat on the table, ready to listen. "Spill it out."

"Okay. Abs, you know what's going on with Kate?"

Abby's face showed surprise. Kate was one of her closest friends, maybe even the best. They worked almost 20 hours a day together and they were the only ones in each other's life that knew what living for your job was. "What's wrong with her?"

Tony explained. "Well besides for the fact that she has completely ignored us for the whole day, it seems like she's mad about something."

"That's weird. She came at me today and she was totally fine. Maybe is something that you two did."

"Yeah, that's what she said but we don't know what we did. She was already mad when she came in this morning so we didn't have time to do anything."

"Okay, mmm... What did you give her yesterday?"

"Give her?" McGee asked after looking at Tony. They were more confused than usual.

"Yeah, as a present."

Still nothing, like they were waiting for an explanation.

"Wait a minute, you knew that yesterday was her birthday, right?"

They looked at each other at the same time like 'Ohhhhhhhh'

"Oh my God, you are such an idiots! How could you forget it? It's her favorite day of the year" She was clearly offended.

McGee took out his phone and saw the date "I didn't realize yesterday was 17!"

Tony put his hands on his head, messing with his hair. "We really screwed it this time."

"Get out!" Abby yelled.

"What?" They both asked at the same time.

"I don't want you near my lab until you make up for what you did!" She said as she pushed them out.

"Wait! What can we do?" McGee asked.

"I don't know, give her a present or surprise her, just do something to show her that you are not as dumb as you seem."

BAM! Door closed.

"Great, what do we do now?" Tony was blank, he wasn't good at this.

"We can go and talk to the boss."

"Have you ever talk to Gibbs, McGee?"

"C'mon Tony he works with her too, he may have a solution. Besides he had three wives, he HAS to have an idea of what we can do."

*

McGee arrived to the office with Tony following him. He still wasn't sure talking to Gibbs was a good idea. "Boss, did you know that yesterday was Kate's birthday?"

Gibbs didn't even look up from the computer to answer "Of course, I sent a bunch of flowers to her house."

"Everybody knew?" McGee was stressful by the situation. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I'm not your calendar McGee, the two of you should have the birthdays written down." They knew he was right about that. "Is she mad at you?" He asked.

"Kinda." Tony said.

"Well, fix it"

McGee was getting desperate "We don't know how."

"You work with her 6 days a week, you are her friends, you know her. You'll come up with something." Now Gibbs was encouraging them.

"I'll try to talk to her. Again." Tony said rolling his eyes.

*

"Kate, please." Tony was following her down the hall.

"Tony, I don't wanna hear it."

"I know we messed up. Ok?"

Kate stopped walking and so did Tony. Listening to what he had to say, did they already figure it out?

"We know that yesterday was your birthday, and we are really sorry we forgot."

They did.

"You know what the real problem is, Tony? McGee can walk away from this because... he is not you. You have been my partner for almost 4 years now. I know everything about you and you know everything about me. If you forget my birthday once or twice it's fine but after almost dying last year... I thought... I thought that maybe we could celebrate that we are all still together and alive" She made a pause, thinking what to say next. "And apparently that didn't mean anything to you."

She was turning around to keep walking when Tony grabbed her by the arm and forced her into the interrogation room.

"Tony!"

He closed the door behind him. "You think that you almost dying didn't mean anything to me? That your blood in my face doesn't appear in my dreams every night? You were unconscious but do you know who went into the ambulance with you? Who hold your hand until you got into the ER? And who do you think change your flowers everyday after the operation? The nurses?" He was almost yelling but he wasn't angry, he was just frustrated.

Kate stayed quiet for a bit, not really knowing what to say. He was there the whole time? Why he never said anything? "Why didn't you tell me all of this?"

"Because I didn't do it for you to know, I did it because I wanted to stay close to you, I was worried I was gonna lose you." He closed his eyes before talking again. "I did forget your birthday and I'm sorry. But I won't let you think for a second that you don't mean anything to me." He opened his eyes and all she could see was regret, he was really sorry. It was the first time in all these years that Tony really seem to mean what he says. Kate put a hand in his face.

"Tony, I'm so..."

"No. I'm sorry. It's my fault that you feel this way. I never showed you how important you are to me. But I'm done with that, I don't wanna lose you in anyway."

"You won't."

"Great." They look at each other for a while without saying anything. Then Tony smiled one last time before opening the door, he let Kate leave the interrogation room first as he followed her.

They were far away when McGee came out from the other door. He heard the yelling from the hall and even though he knew it was wrong, he put himself at the other side of the mirror, witnessing the whole situation without them knowing.

But now he knew exactly what he had to do.


	3. Not again.

McGee ran to Tony in the bullpen. "Tony! I've been looking for you."

"I've been here the whole time." Tim knew he was lying.

"Listen, I wanted to apologize for how I talked to you before we went to Abby's. I know that you are just being you but you care about Kate anyway. I'm sorry, I was pretty insensitive."

"Don't worry Probie, I think I deserved that. It was actually helpful. It opened my eyes and I talked to Kate. She's not mad anymore but I think we still owe her big."

"I'm so glad you say that, because I know what we can do to fix this." He was really excited by his own idea and Tony could notice, so he smiled.

"I'm all ears."

*

7.40 pm, just 20 minutes and she would be free. Kate was getting her things ready to go home when her phone rang.

"Please not a case, please not a case, please not a case." She whispered before answering. "Special Agent Todd."

'Agent Todd, we need your presence at MTAC.' It was this woman's voice, definitely calling from upstairs.

She was really tired. "Right now?" 

'Yes, ma'am.'

"Okay, I'll be right there." She sighed before standing up of her desk and going upstairs. The eyescanner bipped and the door opens as she gets in, but the screen is turned off and no one seemed to be there.

"Hello?" She asked. Was this some kind of joke?

"Surprise!" The lights turned on and Tony, Tim, Abby and Ducky were standing there.

"Oh my God. What is this?" She was in shock but her smile was so big. "What are you guys doing here?"

Abby raised her hand. "I think I speak on behalf of Ducky too, when I say I wanted to know what these dorks prepared for you."

"You certainly are, my dear." Ducky smiled and went to the sits.

"Okay." Tony cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "We now know that we screwed it and we're sorry. We get it now."

Tim was sitting on the control desk. "We really are, Kate. So we wanted to prove you how special you are to us."

Then Tony continued. "I guess that dates are not our fort. But we want to make it up to you and let you know that we really appreciate you and love having you as our partner."

"I couldn't say it better. This is for you Kate." Tim stood up and pressed a bottom. The lights were off again but the screen was on and a video was playing. It was made with pictures of all of them together, working, eating, having fun (even on the field). Even Gibbs made an appearance once or twice. What really gets Kate it's the song they picked for the video. It's "I lived" from OneRepublic.

'I wish that I could witness all your joy and all your pain, but until my moment comes I'll say: I did it all.'

Kate started crying at the finals seconds of the video. She knew she had an amazing job and amazing cowokers, but she needed to know that she was appreciated and not given for granted. That was the proof, maybe yes: they did forgot her birthday, but they love her enough to work their asses off just to find a way for her to forgive them.

"You are already forgiven guys. I'm sorry I made a big deal out of this, but I really felt..."

"We know." Tony knew what she was going to say so he approached her. "And the most probably thing it's that we'll forget your birthday again next year, but even if that happens you have to know that you are important to us: yesterday, today and everyday, okay?"

"Okay." Kate couldn't stop crying so she wrapped her arms around Tony's neck, it took him a few seconds before he responded to the hug. Kate used one of her hands to call McGee into the hug, and so he goes followed by Abby and Ducky and now it's a full group hug. "Thank you guys, so much."

They all went down stairs. It was 8.30pm but Kate was not in a rush to go home anymore. McGee gave her the dvd in a beautiful box so she was watching it again and again on her computer. The rest of the team went home except for Tony, he said before that he had work to do since he spent the day trying to save his friendship. But to Kate's eyes, he was working really slow to be Anthony DiNozzo.

Usually he was the first one to run away from the office, but now he was taking his time to do a good job. Weird. But she was so happy that she didn't want to make a big deal out of it. However: she did throw Tony a little ball of paper to call his attention.

"Hey." She smiled at him and he smiled back.

"Hey. Are you tired of watching it?" Referring to the video.

"Never." He never saw her smile like that. She was genuinely happy. "But I was actually ready to go home and I wanted to thank you one more time."

"You don't have to. We did it with pleasure."

"No, Tony... I mean thank you... for everything. For everything you did for me when I got hurt. For being there."

He forgot about that. He forgot that his secret was not a secret anymore. "And you definitely don't have to thank me for that. You stayed with me when I had the plague even though you didn't have it, remember that?" She nodded slowly, remembering the fear of losing him right there in front of her without being able to do something. Tony interrupted her thoughts: "But wait, do not think I did it because you did it first."

She left a little laugh scape. "I don't Tony. Don't worry. See you tomorrow?" She asked graving her purse.

"Of course. Good night."

"Good night." She turned around and called for the elevator that appeared in three seconds. She disappeared from his sight while the doors were closing.

Tony put his eyes back on the keyboard and found the little ball she just threw him. It was obvious, right? He didn't stayed because she stayed, he stayed because he wanted to. He wanted to be with her.

He remembered the voice of Gibbs saying that he should let space for the paramedics to do their job, but that voice was so far away from where he was.

It was just one minute where it was only him thinking 'You can't leave me. You can't leave me, not now. Not like this.' He wouldn't let her go by any chance. He even got to the door of the surgery room with her and two doctors had to stop him and tell him that he couldn't get in. He knew that, but still...

He stayed night and day, until she woke up. After that he'd only appear with the team or when she was sleeping, to check on her and change her flowers. That's what friends do, right? They are always there for you, no matter what.

His phone ringing got him out of his thoughts. It was a message. From McGee.

'Did you tell her?'

That was a really confusing day for him. Did he miss something? What was he talking about?

'Tell who, what?' He texted back.

'Did you tell Kate how you feel about her?'

He didn't answer. He look around trying to find Probie somewhere. But he was already gone. Why would he text him that? Kate was his partner, his friend. He loved to fight with her, to tease her, to go through her stuff to get to see that look in her eyes that was only meant for him. He like the way she dressed everyday and smelled, of course. But that wasn't weird, right? She was, indeed, a beautiful woman after all. She made him feel that he was never alone.

Would he like to be in a relationship with her? Of course, but... wait... "What am I doing?"

He left everything behind and ran to the elevator. After pressing the button multiple times he got to the conclusion that taking the stairs would be a lot faster.

So there he was running two floors down to the parking lot, to Kate's spot. He reached his maximum speed when he heard a car was turning on. And he got to it. He actually hit the car.

"Tony? Oh my God, what are you doing? I almost run you over!" Kate was getting out of the car to check on him with a crazy look. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

He was recovering from the lost of oxygen so he wasn't really standing straight. "I need to tell you..." He said, still trying to catch his breath.

"Tell me what?"

"Why I stayed..."

"Tony, it's really okay. I know you did it because you were actually worried about me."

"No... it's not that."

She was confused now. "Then why?"

"Because I love you." He just said it. Like that. "I didn't know it then, I thought I was just worried but it wasn't just that. I was terrified I could lose you, to never see you again, to never argue with you again. I was afraid I'd never see your beautiful eyes opened again. I'm sorry it took me this long to figure it out. But I didn't do it for you, I did it for me. Because I couldn't be living in this world without you in it."

Kate was in complete shock. Her mouth slightly open trying to process everything he just said. 'Because I love you'.

"You don't have to say it back. I know I'm not your kind of guy. I just didn't want you to leave again without knowing."

Kate took a step to get closer to him and grab his hand. "You are exactly my type, Tony. Brave, charming, annoying, smart... kind of attractive. You are all that and even more to me."

He put his hands around her waist to get her EVEN CLOSER.

"Specially annoying." He confirmed with a huge smile.

She put both her hands around his neck and look him into his brown eyes. "Specially that." She said with a grin in her face. And suddenly the small distance between them disappeared by their lips getting together. It was a shy kiss at first, but then they realized how much they both wanted that. So bad over the years, that they had to compensate for all the time lost.

I think the lesson is: don't leave for tomorrow what you can do today. Because tomorrow can be too late.


End file.
